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A great gaming system, both then and now

Whilst my loyalty will always lie first and foremost with the magnificent Sega Megadrive, there's no escaping the fact that the SNES is an equally brilliant console, and was in fact more powerful than the megadrive, with a lusher colour palette and more processing muscle.

More than that though- like the megadrive it has a vast library of excellent and varied titles to play on it, unlike other games machines like the Atari Jaguar, a far more powerful machine that was completely let down by having next to no decent games to play on the damn thing.

Whist the Megadrive has Sonic, the SNES has Super Mario World, one of the greatest platformers ever which managed to improve upon its already excellent predecessors on the 8-bit NES. Then there were other platform-style games with RPG elements, like the superb Zelda and Castlevania series, as well as more hardcore RPG games like Chrono-Trigger, the Final Fantasy games and the superb cyberpunk epic Shadowrun. Blasters like Super Metroid and Megaman were also great fun, as were racers like the decidedly old-school (yet souped-up) Rock N Roll Racing, whilst the system was also capable of closely replicating the arcade feel of classic beat-em ups like Street Fighter 2.

The system's graphics still look great today, with bucketloads of colour and an idiosyncratic charm to them, whilst the games are every bit as playable and engrossing as they always were .The controllers feel nautural, ergonomic and easy to use, and the games library was diverse enough to appeal to all kinds of gamer's different tastes and levels of challenge, making the SNES easily one of the most successful and entertaining consoles of all time.

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An old-timer worth a ride

It was a Christmas evening many, many years ago (I was probably 9, but in all honesty I do not remember exactly). After a family dinner we went out for a walk in the city which was beautifully decorated and full of stands offering Christmas treats and sweets. I remember my mother bought me a red helium balloon in the shape of the reindeer - that was probably the time when my father sneaked back home and "planted" the gifts under the tree and returned to us, I honestly did not see him leave so imagine my surprise and new questionings about the great force called Santa (in which at the time I did not believe anymore, but my dad managed to bring back the X-mas spirit in full force). There it was a big box wrapped in the newspaper (this is why I suspect it was the work of my dad :) and along the big box three little boxes. Me and my sister (the gift was for both) unwrapped the boxes in the matter of seconds. And there it was a brand new Super Nintendo with 3 games (Tinny Tunes, Jurassic Park, Top Gear). I think I cried. I really do not know why my parents bought this for us, I imagine it was quite expensive at the time and we were not the wealthiest family nor was it the custom to buy expensive gifts, but whatever the reason was, blessed it be :)

I grew up with this console, learned a lot of things because of it - all the additional games I had to buy for myself (my sister was not as interested in buying haha) so creativity in order to save up for the games was in order. I was quite a business child selling handmade postcards (and other crafts) to my family (grandparents were the most faithful customers). Tons of fun hours I have spent with this console, mostly with my friends as we would take turns in playing or compete in many two-player games I had. My mother was the "parental advisor" on our console game time and she had a perfect sense on when to say; "Alright kids, that's enough now... Go out and play!". We always did what she said and with our heads filled with imaginative worlds we encountered playing, we hurled outside and continued to play in the real world.

If you look at the console today, especially at its specifications you might not, well I am certain you will not be impressed. There is a 99.9% chance your mobile phone is more efficient. With a 16 bit processing unit, memory measured in bytes not megabytes, capability of showing 32768 - that's equal to 15 bit - if you are using older MS Windows you can check your desktop settings and see if you can set it to this graphical setting (you would probably have to have a really old version) - to get the feel of the graphics. 16-bit stereo sound does not sound impressive either. For those of you that are not tech types all this information points to - not good. All in all it really is far from impressive. But there is some magic in this console. There is something in this weak numbers, there has to be since after all these years and progress made in the gaming industry I still take this baby out of the closet and play one of the many games I own and have a blast doing it. Well the fact that it still works gives it a thumbs up too.

What is that magical thing? I really do not know, it might be in the controller. It is unbelievably easy to hold in hands, be it a child's hands or a grownup's hands it fits perfectly. It is in my opinion the best shaped game controller that was ever invented - I could and can play for hours and my hands did not hurt. The controller is really simple with only a few buttons (4 coloured action buttons, 2 buttons on top of the gamepad, a cross button and start and select button) that are easily operated with fingers (making combos in fighting games was brilliant with these). The buttons are made from hard plastic but I never got blisters from them. The game-pad is perfect for playing games from all genres.

But the game-pad itself can't be enough can it? It might be he simplicity of use when it comes to this console. You connect the console to the TV, plug it in electricity and just pop the game cartridge into the slot, press the huge start button (occasionally reset button) and that's pretty much it. You won't have to worry about memory cards, erase data on it to be able to play games etc. Sounding better and better.

But what really makes this console special in my mind is the games. Nintendo is well know for their brand games such as Super Mario and Pokemon (although I did not own Pokemon nor does it come for SNES I think) and these games alone make it worth while to purchase one of their consoles. These two game titles are without a saying the best ones out there. Playing games on SNES was always fun, mainly because of simple graphics that were and still are more than satisfactory. The games were simple yet still demanding. I was never throwing the game-pad in anger as am now tempted with some modern games. The games served their purpose - they were meant to entertain and relax and not to agitate and make nervous. Most of the games are at the first glare more appealing to youngsters but I find myself enjoying in all of them.

In my opinion this is the best game console that was ever released and all the great graphics in new ones, all the movement sensors and all the cool stuff new ones can offer will never top the warmth in the heart that this one provides. If I will ever have a child this will be the first console he or she will get their hands on.

Don't think that this for many obsolete console is hard to get these days, there are tons of offers on-line and you can get it fairly cheaply. But the limited edition ones can get prices higher than any new console has. With all the new consoles out there I can't say you must buy this one, but if you will I am sure you will not regret it. 100's of games are also easy to find in on-line stores.

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Used to rule with the Mega Drive

While I had the Sega Mega Drive my younger brother had the rival to this console, the Super Nintendo. This was a fairly bulky box of a games system in grey and white with a slot on the top for games cartridges to be inserted in to, similar to the Sega, just below this was an eject button to enable you to release them. To the left of this was the power switch and to the right was a reset button when you just wanted to start again rather than turn the system completely off all together.

There were two joy pads with the one in our house which were the same colour scheme as the main console. My brother and I along with other friends had a lot of good times playing with this console and although now if you played on this it would look extremely dated and not that great but at its peak it was brilliant and only rivalled by the aforementioned Mega Drive. The graphics, colours and sounds all added to the game playing experience.

I can remember we had a game cartridge that contained the entire Super Mario Brothers collection which provided hours of fun and entertainment trying to complete all of the levels, a truly legendary platform game. Speaking of Mario we also had Super Mario Kart which seems to have made a bit of a comeback on the WII but I can recall it was great racing against each other as the different Nintendo characters like Luigi and Mario, Princess and Toadstool dropping banana skins and firing tortoise shells to try and slow each other down.

F Zero was a popular title which was kind of like a futuristic style racing game and NBA Jam was a basketball game which enabled you to make all types of crazy shots and slam dunks even breaking the back board of glass making it shatter all over the court if you pressed the correct sequence of buttons. We of course played Street Fighter II and Micro Machines which was where you raced tiny vehicles around different settings and scenarios in imitation of the toys that were popular when I was young. All in all I think this and the Mega Drive both had good things to offer and if you can pick one of these up on eBay or from a car boot sale or charity shop it might be a nice bit of nostalgia for you.

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A brilliant console which brilliant games

In a nutshell, perhaps one of the greatest consoles ever to be released. The Super Nintendo is a 16bit system which was released between 1990 and 1993. It was the second console to be released by Nintendo and was a major success in the industry. It was released for around $200 in America and £150 in the UK. A snip compared to the price of modern games console release prices.

The Super Nintendo brought us such great classics such Super Mario producing massive sales, star fox, as well as many other Nintendo characters we have all come to love. The super Nintendo was capable of playing primitive 3D games, such as Star fox and Donkey Kong, thanks to the later released new super FX chips, enabling polygonal images to be displayed. This was a great feature because it kept the price of the console down by not having to include an expensive CPU.

After what now must be around twenty years since its release, mine is still going strong and I still continue to use mine over my PS2, just because the games are such classics. Sometimes the game would not immediately work which means having to blow dust away from the cartridge which is still a great novelty. The controller is simple to hold, light and very hand-friendly. The console is easy to set up, but no scart input, just an AV lead which I think most TVs still have so you can still play this best on most TVs.

As I said, mine is still working even today, something which is pretty unbelievable, I really couldn't see many of today's consoles lasting that long. So this is hugely reliable. You can't really damage your games either as there are no discs, just cartridges that are very durable and hard to damage. There are no memory cards or fancy hard drives. The saved games are stored directly onto the cartridge using RAM. There is a reset button, eject button and power button, and that's all you need. There is a second controller port for a 2nd player but I doubt there is 4 player ability

Compared to what consoles offer today, this is quite a basic machine, but still such great fun. It bleeds retro and brings me back to my really young days every time I turn it on. You can still pick these up online 2nd hand and it may not be a bad idea if you can as I am sure this could become quite a collectors Item. Games are still available although as you may have guessed, manufacture has ceased many years ago. Still, a great catalogue of games around to be found! Try and get the boxes that the games come in as well. Super Nintendos can still be found online but are seemingly becoming harder to get hold of. I have seen them for around £40 and that could be likely to rise. A brilliant machine from a brilliant but gone-by era.

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An amazing console which gave us the "golden age" of gaming.

The super Nintendo console in my opinion is not just the best nintendo console ever made but the best console ever full stop. It was the console that had so many timeless classics and so many great games for it.

The super Nintendo was the follow up console to the brilliant Nintendo entertainment system console. It was first released in japan on November 21st 1990 and was available everywhere else by 1993. The console had a great sound system built into it thanks to sony's FX chip, this gave games that were released on the snes better quality music and sound effects. The snes also had something built in it called mode 7, mode 7 gave 3D like graphics and backgrounds to the snes most games used mode 7 to their advantage. But if it wasn't for mode 7 some games wouldn't have been created classic games like super mario kart and starwing and many other brilliant titles.

The snes was responsible for hosting many great games such as super mario world, legend of zelda: link to the past, starwing, super mario kart, Donkey Kong country and almost anything made by capcom. All these great games had the super nintendo's technology to thank for their success. In the end the snes managed to beat its main rival the sega megadrive by miles.

All these reasons made the super Nintendo a great console and everyone who played it ended up loving it. But is it still worth getting one YES, yes it is everyone should experience the "golden age" of gaming thanks to this genius console if you ever have a chance to get one go ahead and buy it you won't be sorry especially if your a nintendo fan! But seriously it really is worth getting this console a must have!

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Childhood magic

To this day, the SNES represents my favourite chapter in my gaming. It created an emotional attachment that can only ever be made at a certain age (I was eleven) and depresses me for this very reason as I know it will never be surpassed.

My relationship with the Super Nintendo was a slow burner. I'd be drawn in by its bright colours and the promises of 3 dimensions through its Mode 7 chip but i'd be rejected by the console's price and the frankly chilling cost of games back then which i'd covet in the Dixon's window. As an eleven year old my sources of income were limited and i'd often find myself drawn into the seedier pay-per-play world of the arcade where I could get a brief thrill but would end up feeling empty and light in the pockets.

It really helped to open my eyes though, through the unveiling of Street Fighter II. I discovered that the game could work just as well for me at home as it would in the uptown gaming brothel so I worked hard.. Harder than i'd ever worked before to raise the necessary cash to pull off Shoryukens in the comfort of my own bedroom. Doing things.. Some I now regre,t to bring Chun-Li home...

For my £60 I was so happy to have my Street Fighter II, Bomberman 2 and Starwing, an excellent game about gay animals in space. I cared for my SNES and wouldn't be lured by temptations on Sega's Mega Drive no matter how aggressively they advertised. I was a happy man.. After lengthy sesssions i'd enjoy wrapping up my joypad and accessories and putting them in the box to give me that new console experience every time I went back to play.

There were hard times too, Super Adventure Island proved to be a holiday to forget and American Gladiators remains the benchmark against which all bad games are judged to ascertain their badness but our good times far outweigh the bad, such is the power of time passing.

I might not have my SNES anymore but remember her through the Virtual Console on my Wii and can relive nuggets of our time together with trips to Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom that remind me of the simple but perfect pad, the tactile and fun eject button and the satisfying click as you pop your game into the slot.

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A great console, but if you had good memories of this console, you maybe disappointed now.

This was the first game console i ever played on, and the first of which my family ever owned. It was also the 2nd proper Nintendo console, the first being the NES.

Many people remember this as the first console to bring us the classics that live on to this day, the SNES and the NES being the most well-known consoles around, particularly popular for bringing the Super Mario series to our screens.

The most notable games on the SNES are of course the Super Mario games, of which there were 7 of, Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3, Super Mario World 1 and 2, Super Mario RPG and Super Mario Kart. The Donkey Kong Country series of games also enjoyed much popularity, being the most sold game that wasnt included with the SNES console.

The consoles main competition was that of the SEGA Genesis, SEGA representing their console as a cool, cheap alternative, the consoles fought for many years, and eventually the SNES succeeded in outselling the SEGA Genesis.

The console suffered from next to no reliability issues, unlike most consoles that were made in the future. However Nintendo have always managed to stay ahead in the reliability of their products.

Nintendo's policy at the time of the SNES required that the Nintendo company assess every game for their console before approving it. This was to prevent adult and mature games being made available for the console. Unfortunatly for Nintendo, this resulted in a severe lack of sales in games that featured gore and intense violence, while the SEGA Genesis retained the gore, the SNES removed it from certain games, meaning the Genesis outsold the SNES in these games. Most notably Mortal Kombat of which the Genesis version sold more than 3 times the amount the SNES did.

The SNES had revolutionary technology, allowing it to feature basic 3d graphics, rivalling those of the early PS1 games. Donkey Kong Country which was released in 1994 featured 3d models. From November 24th 1994 to January 1995, the game sold 6.1 million copies, the game broke the record for the fastest selling video game.

The SNES console is a great console, however it will probably set you back around £30 nowadays, as they're becoming some what of a collectors item. There are many classic games that you can get for this console, luckily most of the good games are common and therefore won't cost you much.

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I was cleaning out my roof space last weekend and I came across my old Nintendo Super NES, this console was my childhood and I had to give it a go and thankfully it still works!

Nintendo Super NES, (Nintendo Entertainment System) was a great console released in the 1990's, (1991) that had a great variety of games for it that were made by the Nintendo company, I still think that this was the best console that Nintendo ever made, maybe barr the Wii.

Nintendo Super NES was an 16 bit console that played 16 bit games that were in cartrage form. This console was a remake of the early version NES system, which also had a great range of games for it. The Super NES however was much smaller, more compact and in them days definantly looked much nicer than the Boxy shaped NES.

The Super NES has two controller ports to connect two controlls and play two player games. It also has a reset button to reset a game and obviously a power switch, when the power was switched on a red button appeared to inform users that the power was on. Games were slotted into a gap that contained the reading technology for the 16 bit games and they were ejected using the large eject button.

The Super NES was directly in competition with the Sega Megadrive at the time of selling, both were great consoles, however I prefered the Super Nes by far as there were nicer graphics and better games for it.

This console game computer, cartoony graphics to play and there was limited 3d quality about the games, however it was a really fun and challenging console with a great range of games, including the game that was normally packaged with the system 'Super Mario World'.

Other games that were available for this console included:Super Mario Bros 1,2 and 3Mario World Lost LevelsMario All StarsMario PaintYoshis Island 1 and 2Donkey Kong Country (a 36 bit game)The Adams FamilyAlienAnimaniacsand many many more.

I still think that this is a great console, that was built to last as mine still works after all these years. There was hours of entertainment in this console and I think that it is one of the greats.

You can buy the Super NES on ebay or Amazon for all different prices, and with different ranges of games, it really brings back some memorys to have found mine again.

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Love playing this console, the best Nintendo Console I Have

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

I bought a SNES back in the 90's for around £60, and it's still working! I have all the latest generation gaming consoles, the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and a Nintendo Wii. And I still use my SNES after nearly twenty years. It still needs to be blown on the games and console but it works excellently! It lasted longer than my Xbox 360 20GB version anyways! Although the console has 2D graphics, Uses Composite/Scart leads instead of Component and HDMI, Standard quality instead of High Definition. It is one of the best Consoles I have ever seen! Unfortunately Nintendo don't make SNES consoles or Games but you can still them on Amazon.co.uk or Ebay.co.uk!

Super Nintendo Entertainment System Description...The SNES Console is grey. On the top of the console is were all the games go in and the power button is etc. From top to bottom there is a Nintendo logo, a door for you to put in your SNES games with a sentence on the top of the door PAL VERSION. Underneath the door from left to right there is a Power slider button, Eject button and a Reset button. Underneath the buttons there is three logos. Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Entertainment System. Beside the logos there is a LED to show that the console is on! On the front of the console there are two SNES controller ports. On the bottom of the console from top to bottom there is an EXT port, A serial code to your SNES Console and some information about the SNES console. On the back of the SNES console from left to right there is a AV Multi out, RF out and a AC Adapter port.

Game play of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...The game play of the SNES is old school classical, it isn't good for nowadays but back in the 90's it was the best graphics about! I still think that the SNES graphics are excellent because I grew up with all the old consoles. When I play the SNES it brings back old memories back to my childhood. The graphics are 2D. The games are quite long, longer than some of the new games out so you get a long time playing them. In my SNES now I play my all time classic Super Mario World. It is the best game I have ever played on the SNES! I love the theme tunes to it to.

OverallI love playing this console, it has done me almost twenty years and I am sure it will do me more years to come, so I got my money worth from the console! I run my console on Scart lead that fits into the back of the SNES console in the AV Multi out port! It is a excellent console, The best Nintendo Console of all times. The only bad thing about it is that they don't make them anymore or they don't make any games for it!

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Worth taking a look

Originally released in Japan under the name Super Famicom [short for family computer] in 1990, the Super Nintendo was later released in the US and Europe.

My first interaction was with the original Super Famicom, compared to the original Nintendo Entertainment System, the Famicom enabled improved graphics and sound.

This improvement was immediately noticeable in early release titles such as Street Fighter 2, Super Mario World, Final Fight and F Zero X. Such games benefited from the system's improved ability to scale and render 2D graphics at an impressive pace.

Compared to the Mega Drive, the Super Famicom was perhaps slightly slower. This difference could be seen when comparing the Famicom with Mega Drive games such as Strider and Sonic the Hedgehog. On one hand while the Mega Drive was faster, it couldn't handle large 2D sprites in the same manner as the Super Famicom, neither could it match the Super Famicom's colour palette.

While the Super Famicom and Super NES are essentially the same console with the exception of region locking, the European released Super Nintendo suffered from a major flaw. While US and Japanese television systems were designed to run in 60hz, PAL systems were set to 50hz. Therefore to match the speed of European television systems, the Super Nintendo suffered from a reduction in approx 17.5% speed and boarders to compensate for the extra line resolution of the PAL television system.

In terms of hardware, the build quality and design of the SNES was slightly better than the Mega Drive system. The SNES seemed far more solid and less likely to break. The SNES pads were also composed of a better construction.

The SNES was released at a time when 2D gaming was at its peak. Unfortunately such games have now become extinct in the latest generation.

Many SNES games such as Super Mario World and Yoshi's island are still enjoyable and no worse than many present day DS games. However, make sure you get the original Famicom system that runs in 60hz otherwise there is little point.

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the snes is an allround fantastic console with fab games

I had my first SNES when i was about 8 or 9 and it was one of the best games consoles i have ever owned - i actually went out about a month ago a bought it again second hand. the best games of course are mario games. you can buy, for snes, mario allstars game which has mario 1, 2 & 3 aswell as the lost levels (all the levels that were deleted from mario 1). also super marioworls is a must have game for the snes. even thought it is an old console i think kids nowadays will LOVE it as much as i did.

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If you like to play football and manage it than this is the game for you.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is the best football game I have played on.The graphics are good except there is not much change from the last Pro Evo game. A huge selection of teams is available from club to International.

It is great because you can manage the team from formation in great detail and then you can also play it. Unlike some other games where you just play football you can do all the formations etc.

You can start off in a low division and then work up to achieve great succes in the Priemership. You can be a club team in leagues such as the Priemership. Also major cups such as the FA Cup are available to play on.

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"game cartridges were too big"

Pefection is impossible. There is no perfect society, no perfect man, not even God is perfect. But with the Super NES, we witnessed near perfection, even near it's waning days we realized this is as good as it gets. I hate gamers today who's first console was the Playstation. Heck, I'm not even too happy if your first console was the Super NES. To be a true gamer, you have to have been around during the golden age of video gaming. Mario, Pac-Man, Pong, all classics that will live in our hearts forever. When Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System, it set the building blocks for what would be the biggest video game developer for over a decade. The NES was a huge success in the post-arcade era, if you didn't own a NES, you weren't cool like everyone else. How was the NES so revolutionary? For starters, most gamers only knew the shooters, simple arcade games where you tried to best your own score. Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. gave you a more concrete new goal, to finish the game. At first glance Mario was such a simple idea, two brothers named Mario and Luigi defeating an evil turtle to save the princess. The mastermind behind the game Shigeru Miyamoto gave us that, and so much more. The truth is, Mario belongs along such huge kid icons like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Homer Simpson. Mario is still the face of gaming. Mario is still who Nintendo turns to when they need a big seller. Yet, we sometimes fail to realize the brilliance of the Mario games. Over the course of history Mario has undergone changes, we were amazed with each of the new Mario games. Yet, he still remains that lovable pudgy little Italian. Super Mario Bros. saved gaming. If Super Mario Bros. were never made, you can kiss goodbye to Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and every single other game. In truth, Super Mario Bros. has in some way influenced every developer out there. Feeding off the success of Super Mario Bros, Nintendo released two more Mario games on the NES, all equally successful. Mario eventually even got his own multiple cartoon shows and a movie. Along the timeline of the NES, more classics such as The Legend of Zelda, Kirby's Adventure, and Metroid lay the building blocks for Nintendo's future franchises. So this is where Nintendo is now before the release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Could they pull it off? Could they upgrade one of the most revolutionary pieces of hardware of all time and continue their dominance in the gaming industry? For many, the NES still remains the favorite of hardcore Nintendo fans. For this generation however, we pick the Super Nintendo. The Super Famiconm (Japanese name) was released in Japan shortly before the North American release of the Super Nintendo in 1990. It was time for Shigeru Miyamoto to cook up some more masterpieces. He delivered Super Mario World at the launch date, thinking of the game now I still marvel at it. I wouldn't be surprised if this would be voted the greatest launch title EVER. Miyamoto continues the recipe for success with Mario, using old elements but folding nwe ones into it at the same time. It would be a crime not to put this into a list of one of the top 10 games of all time. Nintendo experienced a short shortage after the release of F-Zero, a futuristic racer, but then came the third-party support. Capcom and Konami proved their power with games such as Fight, Castlevania, Actraiser, and Super Ghouls N' Ghosts, setting up the release of the third Zelda. The Zelda series is widely regarded as maybe the best of all time, because of it's epic gameplay and memorable events. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past can be considered the best of the series. Again, Miyamoto took the formula from the original game, and used the power of the Super NES to restore the world of Hyrule in all it's glory, and change about everyt hing else. Things were good for Nintendo, until a little company named Sega came along... Though most will regard the Super Nintendo as the superior system to Sega's Genesis, there is no doubt it was a very close call. For a long period many did not call playing games as playing 'Nintendo', but as playing 'Sega'. Sega's head mascot Sonic challenged Mario, Sega went with a bolder approach with their character and it succeeded. What if Nintendo put down Sega before they even started? No Genesis, they would control 100% of the gaming market instead of 50%, and their empire would be strengthened today. But no, Nintendo did not do that and Sega has hurt their sales even up to the 32/64-bit era. Nintendo needed more guns against Sega. The Sega Genesis featured the gripping RPG Phantasy Star, while Nintendo was slow behind with the RPG's. Gamers know that you can't make a console without RPG's (one of the big reasons the N64 was such a failure), so they looked to Squaresoft. Over the years, Squaresoft has delievered huge hits such as Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 3 (my person favorite game of all time), Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario RPG. These games ensured Square's place as one of the elite developers. Capcom helped Nintendo's act by releasing Street Fighter II, which was at the time a SNES exclusive, however, many developers were drawn towards the Sega Genesis. Few developers were completely Nintendo loyal anymore, hurting the SNES even more. For several years Nintendo planned a SNES CD-ROM which would completely overwhelm the Sega Genesis' capabilities, however, it was never completed. Nintendo worked with Sony on the project for a while, however, that did not last long as Sony pulled away and eventually started work on their own console the Playstation. Again, what if Nintendo kept Sony? What if they stopped them from making the Playstation? Nintendo would be completely do minant in the industry today. But did they do it? No. Goes to show you the history of some of Nintendo's arrogance. Nintendo released a graphically powerful game called Star Fox in 1993. This game used the FX chip and pushed some of the capabilities of the Super NES to the max. However, this wasn't the big story of 1993. That was the year of Mortal Kombat, and the congress hearings on the gory and violent games. Nintendo had always been kid-friendly games everyone could play, but after Mortal Kombat, things changed. The blood flowed everywhere, ushering in a new era in which Nintendo looked at the more mature games. Super Metroid, Super Punch-Out, and other different franchises were updated in the following years. However, the biggest improvement on a character was by far Donkey Kong Country. The first installment in the series amazed everyone with it's graphics that looked too good to be on the Super NES, and this game sold consoles. Meanwhile, Nintendo continued to re-define themselves when they released Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island which featured not Mario, but his loveable dinosaur Yoshi. Another gorgeous game that pushed the limits of the console. Slowly, Sega began to slow it's pace down, and Nintedo managed to catch up with the release of Donkey Kong Country. Until Sega released the Saturn, forcing Nintendo to develop what would eventually be the Nintendo 64. However, the Super Nintendo was far from dead. In it's final few years the system released an RPG classic named Earthbound, Kirby Superstar which was widely considered the best Kirby game ever, made one of the most addcting games ever called Tetris Attack, Rare's fighting gem Killer Instinct, two new Donkey Kong Country games from Rare, and a few more games from Squaresoft. However, Square did not stay with Nintendo for long. The Nintendo 64 did not appeal to the company and they left Nintendo to develop Final Fantasy on Sony's Playstat ion because the N64 was still using cartridges. What if Nintendo used CD's instead? They would still have Square among other developers and may have killed off Sony and Sega. But again, we see Nintendo's arrogance. The Super Nintendo died shortly after. What did the Super Nintendo not have? You could find something for every gamer. It had the big name action platformers such as Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid, and Super Mario World. It had the epic adventures like Zelda and Secret of Mana. It had the racing games with Super Mario Kart and F-Zero. There were games for the sports fans, NBA Jam and the major sports franchises from Electronic Arts. Fighting games were aplenty, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Killer Instint getting the job done. There were unique games such as Tetris Attack which surprised everyone. And then of course the RPG's, Square's Final Fantasy, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, and a gem from Nintendo called Earthbound. The Super Nintendo showed what a real system was supposed to be have, games, power, and longetivity. Do I rank it ahead of the biggest consoles such as the Playstation, Genesis, and NES? Yes. Do I rank it as THE ideal console? Maybe. Did it do everything it could do? No. There were so many things Nintendo could have done to ensure it's place as the best console of all time, but they didn't. I doubt we will ever see a console as great as the Super NES, if it were to be done though, it would come from Nintendo. Because of the Super NES, I grew loyal to Nintendo. My Super Nintendo will always be next to my N64, Gamecube, and whatever consoles Nintendo brings out next.

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Ah, I got my Super(and indeed it is) Nintendo waaaaay back in the christmas of 1993...or was it 1995? 1993 was the year methinks. I recieved it from my parents with a copy of Super Mario World, Joe & Mac and Jurassic Park(the game that clinched my suspicions I would be getting a SNES for christmas...when they bought that, they had to buy something for me to play it on!). Jurassic Park was way too scary for me, then a mere...lemme think...erm...9? 2001...2000..1999...1998...ermegod...no...8? I don't know and I don't care, alls that I remember is I loved it. Great graphics, a superbly comfortable gaming pad(just compare it to the rectangles that were nes pads...or even worse, the overly light sega pads), and a library of quality games, which may have not been anywhere as nearly as large as the choice for sega, but were always undoubtedly better. I had over 20 games in the end, and a sad day it was for me when production of snes games stopped. Who can forget the revolutionary Starwing? The awe-inspiring graphical sublimity of the rejuvenated Donkey Kong series? Gaming had never been so good, and from there, I have to say with a heavy heart, it has declined. The Snes nurtured the brilliance of companies such as Square(Chrono Trigger) and Rare(Donkey Kong)--hey they rhyme! -- and gave me many hundreds of hours of wasted youth. It gave us the third installment of the immensley excellent Zelda series, and I almost lost my thumbs to Mortal Kombat 3 and Super Street Fighter Turbo! Football games were aplenty, but ISS was a standout in its time(a trend konami has continued above and beyong the early days). There was trash too. Kevin Keegan's football manager was terrible, Flashback was so gorgeous yet so impossibly difficult I sold it for a mere 2.50 at EB, then wanted it back. But there was Mario Allstars, the entire mario series on one single catridge! How did they do it? Thank god they did. The SNES is the single reason to my devotion to Nin tendo. Will they recapture these golden days with the Gamecube? One can pray. Will square comeback and give us a game worthy of matching chrono trigger? Sound was also sublime at times(the ending theme of Starwing was excellent, the tunes of every donkey kong game amazing) and for a while it seemed the Super Nintendo would go on forever. Alas, along came the next generation, along came Sony(Nintendo were originally going to make the PS with Sony and backed down at the last moment - fools...or where they?), the Sega Saturn and the long enduring but admittedly lame and blind N64...and the SNES was swept away. His little brother remained(in the form of the gameboy) but the SNES will always have a special place in my heart. Super it was.

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The SNES is undoubtly one of the best and most respected consoles in history. No, scrap that last comment, the SNES IS the most respected consoles in history. It was the best of its time but is no contest for the super computers of todays gaming world. Games that are rated 1/5 for a PS2 would be 5/5 for a SNES. But that is simply because it is limited in its graphics For it's innovation though, the SNES is un-rivalled. With the SNES most of todays consoles probably wouldn't exist. The whole face of the gaming would be totally different. In fact, I bet we'd all be playing on something kike an Atari 9990 or Sega Sideburn or something of that nature. The best game for the SNES has to be Super Mario World. The graphics were simply astounding and it was so deep in things that you had to do to camplete it. Can still remember the buzz I got when I found Star land and I hd the biggest adrenalin rush of my life when I beat King Koopa andgot princess toadstool from him. One of my other Favourites was a game called 'Super International Cricket'. It's the only cricket game I can remember for my SNES. No matter how hard I tried could never EVER get a six. You'd hit it at the right time with the strongest hit you can get and still it would bounce abouta centimetre from the boundary. My best ever win on that was when II got Australia all out for 20 and got 500 in my First innings with G. Anders getting 98. Well, If I want to get a very useful opinion out of you i better put some info about the machine. Matthew's Guide To Playing A Game On A SNES... 1: Get your SNES Out. 2: plug it into a power supply. 3: Then put the adaptor into the back of the TV 4: get your SNES game pads out (or two if you're playing with a friend) 5: plug it/them into the front of the SNES 6: Get the SNES cartridge of your choice out. 7:Making sure the side with the sticker on is facing towards y ou, Put the cartridge into the slot on the top of the Snes 8: Turn On the TV 9: Turn on the Snes and you're playing a game on the SNES!